The first tree lighting

The toy catalogs have come by the bundles. The boys love looking at them. They usually go back to the same two or three items. He looks so serious here. I guess to a kid, it is pretty serious business!

Making friends


This fella blew that thing and Beckman jumped up so high. He is fascinated with all instruments. So, is Lukas... but he was being a little shy. Which is ok with me... he's almost 4 and doesn't need to be going up to strangers!

Last night, they lit up the Mt P tree in Towne Center (a shopping center). We decided to hop on over to TC. I thought they lit it up at 5pm, but I was wrong. It was 6pm...so we

walked around a bit. Beckman was very friendly to the two fellas that were playing music. He went up and hugged their leg. He's a charmer for sure.

We were playing in the very small toy section of Belk and then I remembered the large train set at Cappers. (they sell Dept 56 etc.) We go and the guy has a huge display and has the Lionel Polar Express train going around his village. The boys were so excited. Beckman would run from one end to the other. Now, we are outside and it is freezing! They would not leave. It was good 45 minutes and then we finally got them over to the tree lighting. They had a cookie and then the mayor said a lil speech and the tree was then lit. Then we left. Tree lighting celebrations are sort of an odd deal....very short. If it hadn't had been for the train, we would have struck out for sure.

Funny part was when Hans was snapping photos of the mayor. I'm like..what is with that Hans? He said, "hey, it's the mayor." I don't get it ..